Following last night’s UFC 304 event in Manchester, England the recipients of the evening’s $100,000 bonus awards were announced.
Normally the UFC pays out $50,000 bonus awards, but the fighters managed to talk Dana White into doubling them for last night’s event. We’ve seen that happen on rare occasions in the past, including $300,000 bonuses as UFC 300 earlier this year, but after being less than impressed by what he saw last night, White said that bonus increases are now completely off the table in future.
“I think tonight’s show that we should not,” White responded when asked by a reporter at the post-fight presser if they should permanently increase the bonus awards. “Upping them doesn’t change anything.
“It doesn’t make anybody fight any harder. It doesn’t change anything. I’m not doing this again. Ever.
“Today was the last, the last day that I’m doing that. I’m not saying that in the future, the bonuses couldn’t get up, but I’m not gonna be at a press conference, say, ‘200, 300’.
“F***ing never again. You can thank everybody on this card for that. Nobody fought any harder.
“There was no sense of urgency. ‘Holy s**t! I want the $100K!’”
White emphasized the fact that at one point on the card there were seven fights in a row that went to a decision in a row, but he did reward the few stars on the main card who did put on a show.
In particular, Paddy Pimblett was singled out by White as he actually gave him an even bigger $200,000 bonus for his 1st round triangle choke submission finish against Bobby Green.
However, despite the fact that Tom Aspinall took just 60 seconds to successfully defend his interim heavyweight title against Curtis Blaydes via KO, he only received the previously stated $100,000 bonus.
Pimblett’s double bonus meant that as unusually only three bonuses in total dished out in total. With that in mind, spare a thought for prelim fighters Sam Peterson and Modestas Bukauskas as, like Pimblett, they each emerged victorious via triangle choke (with Peterson’s finish also coming around the same time as ‘The Baddy’s’ in the opening round), yet they weren’t deemed worthy of a bonus.
On the other hand, another fighter on the early prelims, Mick Parkin, was more fortunate, with his knockout finish of Lukasz Brzeski mid-way through the first round earning him a $100,000 bonus.
